Christmas Horror

Chilling tales told in midwinter around a warm fire date back to antiquity. It is the time of year when days are short, darkness lingers, and the barrier separating the living from the dead is thin. Stories of the stark cold and the visits from the dead remind us of the warm blessings of hearth and home.

Be careful who you upset. Tom, Julie, Marc, and Chris head out for a weekend escape to Cape Cod to do some holiday shopping and check out Marc’s new condo. Julie keeps everyone entertained by reading a book of local urban legends. The stories seem humorous until events begin to spiral out of control. As a blizzard approaches, Julie tries to convince everyone that they’re wrapped up in one of the stories from her book. Is the legend real? Or is everything happening to them just a coincidence? Will anyone make it out alive? A slow burn-thriller that builds tension until a terrifying climax.

“This town has forgotten. Its heart is cold, its soul corrupt. We have come to cleanse it.” Cold Haven was once the epitome of Christmas cheer—a small town where neighbors gathered under twinkling lights, children laughed during festive parades, and the true spirit of the season thrived. At the heart of it all stood the majestic reindeer statues, handcrafted symbols of hope and generosity, proudly leading the town’s iconic Christmas parade. But over the years, the town’s priorities shifted. Tradition gave way to profit, warmth to materialism, and the beloved parade was cast aside,...

It's almost All Hallow's Eve in the year 1690 and accusations are flying in Salem, Massachusetts Bay Colony. The villagers are certain their healer Abigail is a witch, a crime punishable by death. Nathaniel isn't only the acting Chief Magistrate, but an expert in recognizing witchcraft. He ought to be—as a secret wizard himself. With Salem calling for Abigail's conviction, he knows that neither his magic alone nor his position will be sufficient to protect her. Oh, he believes her protestations that she isn't a witch. “Yet, Abigail. You are not a witch…yet.” Awakening her powers is ...

Kevin J. Kennedy has brought the horror world three best-selling Christmas horror anthologies. Now, for the first time ever, he collects his own tales of Christmas madness. You will find a mix of extreme, comedy, gross, and bizarro Christmas horror, and there are even a few drabbles thrown in.

"Ghost Stories of an Antiquary" (1931) is the title of M. R. James' first collection of ghost stories. He wrote many of his ghost stories to be read aloud in the long tradition of spooky Christmas Eve tales. By contrast to the gothic tales of his predecessors, James' stories often use rural settings, with a quiet, scholarly protagonist getting caught up in the activities of supernatural forces. The details of horror are almost never explicit, the stories relying on a gentle, bucolic background to emphasize the awfulness of the otherworldly intrusions.

Heather is shocked to get the mansion so cheap. Now she's about to find out why. The noises, the smell, the rats - is it really rats or something more sinister? And why is Eric, her boyfriend, getting close to a breakdown? Heather doesn't believe in ghosts and tries to find a rational explanation for the unexplained noises, the terrifying visions, and all too real nightmares. But when she realizes that something is trying to end her life, she has to take quick action before she becomes another Christmas tragedy.

After her parents' divorce, five-year old Corinna Greer moves into Blakemort with her mother and brother. Set on the edge of the village of Whitesmith, the only thing attractive about it is the rent. A 'sensitive', Corinna is aware from the start that something is wrong with the house. Very wrong. Christmas is coming but at Blakemort that's not something to get excited about. A house that sits and broods, that calculates and considers, it's then that it lashes out - the attacks endured over five years becoming worse.

Four dark tales of the holiday spirit. In "Christmas Eve Gift", Old Bill sets out on her annual Christmas Eve journey to her niece's house and encounters an unexpected darkness along the way. In "A Dark Christmas", Alice, a dark daughter of the vampire, Elizabet, turns the table on a family of hunters. In "On the 7th Day of Christmas", Sunny finally gets to throw a party, only a monster shows up and twists a small kink into her New Year's Eve festivities. In "Twelfth Night", A 13-year-old encounters the Woman with No Face for the first time.

Why can't they just leave Christmas alone? Kris Kringle left behind his mercenary life to atone and accept the responsibility of delivering presents to the children each year. The children will smile on Christmas morning at all costs. Someone has set a trap for Kris Kringle - but the problem is, Kris is willing to go anywhere to get those gifts to the children. Including to his dark place. Be careful, world. You don’t want to piss off Saint Nick.

As a writer, Robert P. Wills is often asked by his friends to include them as character in one of his stories. Sometimes that is not possible. As was the case with his friend, Jack. This book solves that problem- Jack is the one and only character. Now that Jack is happy, Robert wants to share that joy with you. So-- Buy the ebook and send it to someone named Jack. Or, put it on your eReader and when you have company over, open it up and then put it on your coffee table or end table. When your guests open it out of curiosity, they will be confused. Confused guests are a good thing. Or, if ...

Featuring work by Charles Dickens, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Clara Venn and Hume Nisbet, this collection of nine enduring stories - some well-known, others less familiar - evoke the many spirits of Christmas. Featuring misty journeys to distant loved ones, Christmas Eve manifestations and lonely, frost-filled vigils.

As the dark and menacing waters of the local river submerge Perdido, a small town in the south of Alabama, the Caskeys - a family of rich landowners - must confront the tide of damage caused by the flood. Led by Mary-Love, the powerful matriarch, and by Oscar, her devoted son, the family must pick itself back up. But what they haven't anticipated is the sudden appearance of Elinor Dammert - a mysterious but seductive young woman with a troubling past. Her sole ambition appears to be to infiltrate the very heart of the Caskey clan...

Christmas is a time for family and giving, and a wealthy woman in Adelaide, Oklahoma, is about to embrace both. Discovering that she has a young grandson, the dowager decides to change her will to leave the bulk of her fortune to the young boy, an alteration that stuns the rest of her family. But a scrooge of a determined heir makes sure she never signs the new document. When she is found dead, it's up to that irrepressible spirit Bailey Ruth to save Christmas.

It's Christmas Eve - a time of wonder, magic, anticipation....And terror. A father who will go to any lengths to feed his hungry children. An unsuspecting woman who inherits a house with a deadly secret. A murderous widow who shares a train carriage with Jack the Ripper. Two burglars who bite off more than they can chew, during a late-night raid. These, and many more bedtime stories, come hideously to life, in Mark L'Estrange's 19 tales of terror - each set on the most festive night of the year.

A hot holiday toy that brings terror to a department store. A man caught in a blizzard as he searches for help for a dying friend. A girl who wakes up to surprise visitors on Día de los Muertos. A man who recounts a sick and twisted Thanksgiving. A boy who becomes intrigued by a mysterious house and the girl who resides there during fall break. A family man who struggles with a dilemma that may cost him his soul.

Winter, with its unsettling blend of the cosy and the sinister, has long been a popular time for gathering by the bright flame of a candle, or the warm crackling of a fire, and swapping stories of ghosts and strange happenings. Now eight best-selling, award-winning authors, master storytellers of the sinister and the macabre bring this time-honoured tradition to vivid life in a spellbinding collection of new and original haunted tales.

There seems to be nothing strange with family Christmas Eve visits...or is there? From Barry T. KuKes' vibrant imagination comes an emotional, enigmatic tale of a magic house that brings the dead back to life every Christmas Eve, in The Christmas House and The Christmas House II: Martha's Return.

It's the most wonderful time of the year, and everyone eagerly prepares for the annual Christmas dance, a cherished tradition that brings the community together. But this year, something wicked stirs beneath the merriment. As the disco lights flash and the dance floor beckons, the unsuspecting partygoers become trapped in a nightmare they never saw coming. Amidst the glimmering tinsel and twinkling lights, an evil presence infiltrates the dance, turning it into a horrifying spectacle.

If I am to be damned with slim chance to yet redeem myself than for why spend the rest of my waking days in trying to make amends when I can but face my demons early and enjoy the warmth offered from the free flames of Hell? You say that this is the fate that awaits unless I change my ways and wants and yet the man you’ve shown is the one whom I am and am proud to be. The what-if is all but weak, the kind of man seen staggering down a street with not a penny in his pocket and yet still taken for a fool by those passing by.